1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of a floating electrode device wherein the floating electrode is charged by means of a corona source to a predetermined charge and then discharged across a series gap. The charging and discharging process is repeatable. The repetitious discharge is transformed into a repetitious voltage or current pulse and provided to a "circuit-under-test". The repetitious discharge can be used to test the circuit-under-test's ability to withstand multiple electric impulses.
2. Description of Related Art
Lightning discharges, voltage spikes, and other electrical impulses are one of the main causes of failure in electronic devices. Almost every lightning strike will be accompanied by subsequent strokes having time intervals of a few milliseconds or less. The initial electrical impulse and subsequent impulses can affect an electronic circuit and its componentry in a variety of ways. The impulse can disturb or change the characteristics of a device's protection circuitry. After several impulse strikes the protection circuitry may become stressed and change its electrical characteristics enough to allow a small part of the electrical impulse into other circuitry which the protection circuitry is supposed to protect. As a result, the circuitry can malfunction or be damaged.
In the market place today, it has become more and more important to test electronic circuitry and to determine how well circuitry will hold up to repetitive electrical impulses. One of the main problems with prior art electronic impulse test equipment is its inability to produce repetitive discharges having a time difference of a few milliseconds or less and its inability to produce an electrical impulse having wave front's with a rise time of a few nanoseconds while maintaining a constant current waveform.
Presently, most voltage and current impulse generators are based on a circuit design called a Marx generator. One limitation of Marx generators is the series inductance of its components. The series inductance increases the rise time of the generated impulses. Furthermore, the Marx generator is not capable of producing several impulses per second.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide an impulse generator capable of producing electrical impulses having a rise time of a few nanoseconds which have substantially a constant current waveform. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide a repetitive constant energy impulse generator that can repeat pulses every few microseconds without changing its waveform.